the three hour Christmas card photoshoot

we had high hopes this morning of quickly snapping a picture of the kids, picking a premade card, and printing our Christmas cards. i told the kids they didn't have to dress up - they could just wear normal clothes, and that i just needed one fast picture. well, ella insisted on wanting to wear her dress. anna wanted to wear her outfit too, but then the shirt was too tight, apparently (it looks fine to me, but what do i know?). wilson's pants were too big so we got out his pants from last year, but they were on the same hanger as last year's shirt, and he insisted on wearing that too, even though it was too small. ok, we said, fine, we aren't going to argue. finally, we get them outside and these are the faces we got...



"how about a hug?," i said. and we got this:



at this point kurt was frustrated and took away computer and tv for the day. and then we got this:



"ok!" i said, let's just take individual pictures! ella was very cooperative.



except i didn't notice the bird flying out of her head. eeek!

wilson finally cooperated after a little bribery.



it took anna a little while longer, but finally she at least smiled.



i was so excited that i thought maybe we could try one more time for a group shot outside. i came soooo close! first i got this.



and just as i asked anna to brush her hair back wilson hopped down, ran around and did this.



and then went and hid in a basket.



the girls gave me a few more smiles like this.



but wilson never did cooperate. so this year's card is going to be a collage. stinkers!!!